Comments from the Devs

[Lucavi]

I really thinks that XI was that -THAT- good to where he can say things like this?

Lololololol.

[Jamison]

I really thinks that XI was that -THAT- good to where he can say things like this?

By 2003 standards, XI was a hell of a game. Does he have any right to say the things he did? Nope.

[Eagleheart]

Hmmm, fond memories of XI.

(1. Exploration - I'll give this to Tanaka, world was awesome to explore.
(2. Ark Angels.
(3. Resolution. FINALLY. YEARS OF WAITING.
(4. My LS and friends.
(5. Abyssean armor for my PLD and DRK where I actually ran around at endgame looking like a PLD or DRK. Holy cow, imagine that.
(6. Resolution.
(7. My LS and friends.
(8. I haven't covered Resolution yet, have I? O.o
(9. Campaign

Unfond memories:

(1. SKIRMISH ****ING PEPHEDRO. That damned bee was the bane of my existence. If ever an NM appears in XIV with that name, it is mine to slay. Mine, and mine alone.
(2. Salvage in general. It's like AV and CC runs only with a day-long lockout!
(3. Kings.
(4. AV. ._.
(5. The incapacity to simply let anything be awesome. ATK penalty on new weaponskills after years of using the old exclusively? "We want to keep Mythics rare"?
(6. Voidwatch and Legion. Worst. Events. Ever. -_-
(7. WotG took how long again?

(X_X<) I'm done now...

[Ratatapa]

abyssea was no Tanaka iirc

[Balb]

Whether or not XI was a great game or not, how can you proudly take credit for one and completely attempt to absolve responsibility for the other's failure?

[Lucavi]

By 2003 standards, XI was a hell of a game. Does he have any right to say the things he did? Nope.

By 03' standards, you are correct.

Just makes his comments even more of a dick move, but I'm not surprised. Japan is a culture where the old people have tons of power, and, as you can see, they don't enjoy having to step aside for some young upstart.

This was a veteran's way of making a back-handed "compliment" to his former team.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out, but I wish them the best" = "Those goddamn bastards can rot in hell for all I care. PR will spin it my way, anyway."

[Spider-Dan]

I really thinks that XI was that -THAT- good to where he can say things like this?

Lololololol.

To be fair, from 2002-2004, XI (particularly in Japan) was reasonably categorized as "one of the best MMO formats on the market."

[xopher]

Remarkable pettiness from the man, further vindicating my dislike for him. >_> I wish him the best healthwise and will pray for his recovery, but I am glad that he is no longer at SE.

On a completely unrelated note, nobody's mining, harvesting, or farming ever since Atomos came out. o_O Price of felt cloth is doubled, ores are up, logs are up... I'm just gonna follow Yoshi P's advice and stop spending/buying at this point.

I'm making more profit than ever right now. It's pretty nice.

[miokomioko]

I was gonna' say, I've actually made millions in the past few days from shit I gather and leve rewards I get while exping Miner/Botanist/Armorer.

[Raldo]

Popped out a Heaven's Eye IV materia yesterday.
Took a look in the wards...
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...1292835351.jpg
It's payday, bitches.

On Ridill, that materia used to float around 1.8~2M, now it's up to 3M.

[Ratatapa]

Same price on all servers im sure

[Fievel]

It's about 2mil on Aegis, had gone down to 1.4 before all of this.

But yeah, a lot of people are complaining about the price increases, I just see it as a way to make gil quicker haha.

[Thiefami]

I don't think they are. You can't have that much retard put into one game as a team effort.

honestly, I kind of believe it. I've always said that I really do believe that XIV was an outsourced work. Obviously, that would be kept under tight wraps. They couldn't possibly let people know a main Final Fantasy title was not developed by Square.

I'll stick by this belief. Tanaka has produced amazing games, whether you like his idea of balance or grinding it doesn't change that the man has talent. If Tanaka and team were the ones to create the project I think they would have had better understanding of failure they were working with from the very beginning. Right after launch, Tanaka painted a picture of his goals and aspirations for XIV; from ship making, to linkshell halls, co-op crafting, sailing open seas. I'm not saying it was impossible, but I don't think there was a way he could put all that shit in there lol. The team had the hardest time fixing even the simplest bugs.

I believe this shit was sourced and SE made Tanaka put his name on it. I'd be shitty too. I'm not saying Tanaka is not out of touch for this generation of mmos, but I don't believe he's that out of touch.

[millionsknives]

I think Tanaka got a lot of shit for a problem that wasn't entirely his. We all know SE pushed the release date forward for whatever reason, and imo Tanaka 100% knew it wasn't ready to be shipped. That's why he's pissed, as he was the fall guy.

Would Tanakas finished game have been great anyway? No. But I can see why he has a chip on his shoulder with SE.

[Elcura]

honestly, I kind of believe it. I've always said that I really do believe that XIV was an outsourced work. Obviously, that would be kept under tight wraps. They couldn't possibly let people know a main Final Fantasy title was not developed by Square.

I'll stick by this belief. Tanaka has produced amazing games, whether you like his idea of balance or grinding it doesn't change that the man has talent. If Tanaka and team were the ones to create the project I think they would have had better understanding of failure they were working with from the very beginning. Right after launch, Tanaka painted a picture of his goals and aspirations for XIV; from ship making, to linkshell halls, co-op crafting, sailing open seas. I'm not saying it was impossible, but I don't think there was a way he could put all that shit in there lol. The team had the hardest time fixing even the simplest bugs.

I believe this shit was sourced and SE made Tanaka put his name on it. I'd be shitty too. I'm not saying Tanaka is not out of touch for this generation of mmos, but I don't believe he's that out of touch.

Well, even if it was sourced out to china or mars they would still need direction to go with. Tanaka is responsible for the majority of the shit that went into XIV because there's no way a director or producer doesn't know what's going into their game. XIV ended up the way it did because of Tanaka, there may have been other factors involved but you can easily lay the blame with him.

In the end, even if he had the most beautiful vision for an MMO, the execution is what matters. You can blame a lot of people for that, but since the game was built on some crazy idea it never really stood a chance no matter what.

[Thiefami]

I guess I'm more empathetic than most. I can only imagine after being at a company for as long as he was, and being told to take credit for something you have absolutely no real control of, then..be the sole bearer of responsibility with the shit flops. It is his life's work we're talking about, being tarnished. You're 100% correct though, it's all about the execution. When you have no control of the execution,as he stated, that's a total loss for you. Tanaka is not out of line. I totally blame SE.

Be upset about the balance shit, or the grind, because he failed xiv people expect him to shrivel up and die. He has to make a living too lol.

[Pharaun]

What are you not grasping about the fact that he was in charge of the project. When you are the boss you have control of the execution, if it's not up to snuff you tell people to start over and do it right this time.

He has done a lot of good things in his career for SE, but he dropped the ball big time on XIV.

Tanaka is just ing and bitter.

[miokomioko]

What are you not grasping about the fact that he was in charge of the project. When you are the boss you have control of the execution, if it's not up to snuff you tell people to start over and do it right this time.

It's not that cut and dry. As someone working in a creative field (hell, "director" is in my job title too), I can tell you that unless you're the CEO, you do answer to others far less knowledgable in your field... and their retarded decisions/deadlines will always adversely affect your work... and you will get blamed for its shortcomings.

Being director didn't mean that deadlines could move around by his whim and only his. Keep in mind that this game was pushed out the door at the same time Square-Enix profits were going in the shitter.

He is safe-facing, for sure, regardless of whether he's right or not. Which I do not approve of. Very unprofessional.

[Elcura]

It's not that cut and dry. As someone working in a creative field (hell, "director" is in my job title too), I can tell you that unless you're the CEO, you do answer to others far less knowledgable in your field... and their retarded decisions/deadlines will always adversely affect your work... and you will get blamed for its shortcomings.

Well of course, everyone answers to someone, but there's enough wrong with XIV that you have to wonder if Tanaka even had solutions (I know most reasonable people try to keep damage from publishers and marketing guys to a minimum without being insubordinate). Considering all the thinks Yoshi-P fixed before he even got to the battle system is an indication of how far off course they were. If there were a few odd things and errant mechanics I could place that to random submissions to appease the big boys, but there's enough wrong with XIV at the start of it's launch (even during alpha/beta) that you cannot attribute to more than 1 person being retarded.

Shit only trickles downward, I'm suggesting that the majority of the shit was Tanaka's.

edit: and to the claim that the man has to get a job elsewhere - honestly I don't believe he does. If you fuck up that big (and while XI was a good game at the time, it didn't age well and was plagued by so many problems that were later fixed you have to wonder wtf they were doing) you should take the brunt of that blame. The industry doesn't need tired old men with tired ideas fucking up fresh new IPs.

[Churchill]

honestly, I kind of believe it. I've always said that I really do believe that XIV was an outsourced work. Obviously, that would be kept under tight wraps. They couldn't possibly let people know a main Final Fantasy title was not developed by Square.

I'll stick by this belief. Tanaka has produced amazing games, whether you like his idea of balance or grinding it doesn't change that the man has talent. If Tanaka and team were the ones to create the project I think they would have had better understanding of failure they were working with from the very beginning. Right after launch, Tanaka painted a picture of his goals and aspirations for XIV; from ship making, to linkshell halls, co-op crafting, sailing open seas. I'm not saying it was impossible, but I don't think there was a way he could put all that shit in there lol. The team had the hardest time fixing even the simplest bugs.

I believe this shit was sourced and SE made Tanaka put his name on it. I'd be shitty too. I'm not saying Tanaka is not out of touch for this generation of mmos, but I don't believe he's that out of touch.

I think Tanaka got a lot of shit for a problem that wasn't entirely his. We all know SE pushed the release date forward for whatever reason, and imo Tanaka 100% knew it wasn't ready to be shipped. That's why he's pissed, as he was the fall guy.

Would Tanakas finished game have been great anyway? No. But I can see why he has a chip on his shoulder with SE.

What amazing games? He was a regular developer on the early FF games, and he was in charge/more leadership role of the shittier Chrono Cross and Xeno Gears.

XI had many glaring problems and was an extremely plagiarized (Everquest) MMO. Most of what people love about XI's early days has a lot to do with the fact that the game was so poorly coded and developed. BLM, Skillchains, SA/TA, etc. All of that stuff was horrible - no job could stand on its own besides WHM, BLM, and RNG. SAM was a Spirits Within whore, MNK a Chi Blast whore, etc. The pDIF model and damage formula being horrible lends itself to the nostalgia most people feel for that game early on. It didn't take skill, it was just poorly made.

The 2003-05 years of XI came right after you had WAR/WHM as the main tank for XP/NM's because they spammed barspells for hate, lol.

The 2 times XI has taken a turn for the better were when he (Tanaka) had zero impact on what was being developed - Abyssea and right now.